Blues music has certainly stood the test of time. So has the Rhode Island band Roomful of Blues.

The ensemble was founded in 1967 by its former guitarist, Duke Robillard. The signature horn section was added three years later. Over the years, the group has earned five Grammy nominations, as well as seven Blues Music Awards. It was twice named Best Blues Band in the prestigious DownBeat International Critics Poll.

The octet has hit the road to promote its latest Alligator album, the foot-stompingly rambunctious “Hook, Line & Sinker.” The collection includes tunes by Little Richard, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown and Floyd Dixon. The band performs live tonight at Yoshi’s in Oakland and on Saturday at San Jose’s Metro Fountain Blues Festival.

Guitarist Chris Vachon joined Roomful of Blues in 1991. “It was a challenge, but I had wanted to be in the band for a long time,” he said. “Once I did get in, it took me a little while to learn how to play with that many people, without getting in the way.

“I had to learn a lot of stuff real quick, because I had to, basically, jump on the road right away with these guys. Because of that, I wasn’t really thinking, ‘Am I going to be as good as the last guy?’ I was too busy just trying to do my job. I got used to it pretty quick. And I’ve been having a lot of fun ever since.”

Vachon grew up in Rhode Island. “When The Beatles came to the United States, my sisters bought the album. I was just a little kid and I just really was struck by the whole thing and wanted to be a Beatle. That’s why I ended up getting a guitar. One thing led to another and eventually, after I’d been playing for a number of years, I got into blues … and never turned back.”

He felt liberated by the blues. “I had been in a bunch of different bands and we always had to stick to whatever the song was. You had to copy it. Once I started getting into the blues stuff, I realized there was a lot more freedom in that. You didn’t have to do exactly what they were doing. You could kind of do your own thing, too. That’s what the attraction was for me. Plus I liked the emotion of the whole thing. It just moves me more than other kinds of music.”

Vachon was a fan of B.B. King. Horns and the big sound they provided also held an allure. “Roomful was the only band I’d come across that had that many people in it, with all the horns and everything, so naturally I wanted to be in that band.”

Roomful of Blues has shared the stage with such legends as King, Otis Rush, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton and Carlos Santana. “That’s always fun when somebody like that shows up and wants to play with us,” Vachon said. “That’s a big honor to us.”

Since 1996, Vachon has led Roomful of Blues. “One of the guys that had been leading the band quit and there wasn’t anybody to pick up the slack, so it just sort of fell on me. It was pretty easy. I say I’m a bandleader, but I don’t really like making people do stuff. I don’t have to. Everybody knows what they’re doing. I just have to coordinate things, make sure they’re going smooth.”

He produced the “Hook, Line & Sinker” album. “I just tell everybody we’re going to do a record, make sure everything’s rehearsed well, and then we just go into the studio and cut it live, pretty much. Then I take it over to my house and mix it.”

The band members don’t mind dividing the spotlight. Grooves take precedence over egos.

“You have to learn how to back other people up, instead of just playing your thing. Everybody gets their solos. That keeps it interesting for the audience, that there’s not just one soloist all the time. There’s diversity.”

The band transcends trends.

“We do what we have to do to keep it going. It’s like any other kind of music — it’s popular for a while and then it’s not. So you just have to ride it out.”

There have been more than 50 band members over the years. Yet the music remains at a consistently high level.

“We get people that have the same sort of background, like the same kind of music. We’ve been lucky. We’ll know somebody or hear of somebody who would like to be in the band. Very rarely have we had somebody in the band that didn’t really fit.”

At 53, Vachon hopes he’ll be touring with Roomful of Blues for years to come. “I still get a kick out of it. When you get up there and the band’s really happening and you can tell that people are having fun, that’s what drives us to keep doing it. Can’t ask for more than that.”